The University of Wisconsin's role in
the future of the state economy was discussed at a statewide
listening session Tuesday afternoon.

A live teleconference was broadcast
simultaneously to 50 different sites throughout Wisconsin, offering
each site an opportunity to hear details about the Advantage
Wisconsin program and later have questions answered by UW System
president Kevin Reilly and UW System Executive Vice President Donald
Mash.

The Advantage Wisconsin program is a
strategic framework meant to help ensure UW System campuses aid in
the future success of Wisconsin’s businesses, communities, residents
and students, Reilly said.

"I want to emphasize that this is not
an institutional strategic plan, but a systemwide strategic plan
designed to do two things: guide the motion of the entire system with
all its moving parts in the right direction going forward and provide
shared context for decision making at all levels of the university,"
Reilly said in the teleconference.

Reilly added each UW campus has a
specific plan as to how it will benefit the state in the future,
which is part of "an umbrella systemwide strategic plan [that] will
help us make the whole more than the sum of its parts."

"We believe, of course, that the UW
System is a great advantage for Wisconsin, one that the state should
leverage more effectively," Reilly said. "The point of our
framework building activity is to figure out … how to use the UW to
best advantage Wisconsin in the 21st-century knowledge economy."

Reilly thanked Wisconsin’s early
leaders for creating a "stellar higher education system that
spurred successful communities and strong industries since 1848 when
we became a state," adding the Advantage Wisconsin program is a way
to leverage the UW’s assets.

The UW System, Mash said, must commit
to do several things in order to move Wisconsin successfully into the
future, including increasing the number of graduates and educational
opportunities for Wisconsin residents, as well as improving access to
higher education, retention rates and graduate rates. He added that
the UW System must also link its research programs to
entrepreneurship and business development.

"Most important, our enriched
strategic framework will guide discussions we will have with
businesses, community and political leaders about how the UW, in
partnership with others, can better advantage Wisconsin," Mash
said.

After Reilly and Mash finished
addressing viewers and listeners, each site broke into smaller
discussions aboutits region-specific roles in Advantage Wisconsin,
and later shared feedback with Reilly and Mash.

Many of the questions and comments
involved Wisconsin’s youth and how the state can "prepare more of
them for success in college and success in life early on," said UW
System spokesperson David Giroux.

"I think people today talked about
some very important things — and as is often the case with these
kinds of listening sessions, the feedback people give needs to be
synthesized to really derive the full benefits," Giroux said.

The ideas and feedback from Tuesday’s
listening session will be compiled and presented to the Board of
Regents at its February meeting.